Woman in Green with a Carnation 1909

Henri Matisse painted this portrait, Woman in Green with a Carnation, on canvas with oil paints. Matisse simplifies the figure into flat planes of colour, using bold outlines to define her form. Her eyes are these dark hollows that stare right through you, yet the carnation offers a small burst of warmth against that cool, green background. I bet it was a real dance between control and chance, between how things look and how they feel. I can imagine Matisse stepping back, squinting, and then diving in again with his brush. How do you balance flatness with depth, abstraction with representation? You know, we painters are all looking at each other's work, borrowing, stealing, and riffing off of each other. It’s one big conversation across time and space.